Slobodan Praljak

Slobodan Praljak (slobǒdan prǎːʎak; 2 January 1945 – 29 November 2017) was a Bosnian Croat convicted war criminal who served in the Croatian Army and the Croatian Defence Council, an army of the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia, between 1992 and 1995. Praljak was found guilty of committing violations of the laws of war, crimes against humanity, and breaches of the Geneva Conventions during the Croat–Bosniak War by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in 2017. Praljak voluntarily joined the newly formed Croatian Armed Forces after the outbreak of the Croatian War of Independence in 1991. Before and after the war he was an engineer, a television and theatre director, as well as a businessman. Praljak was indicted by, and voluntarily surrendered to, the ICTY in 2004. In 2013, he was convicted for war crimes against the Bosniak population during the Croat–Bosniak War alongside five other Bosnian Croat officials, and was sentenced to 20 years in jail (minus the time he had already spent in detention). Upon hearing the guilty verdict upheld in November 2017, Praljak stated that he rejected the verdict of the court, and fatally poisoned himself in the courtroom. Slobodan Praljak was born on 2 January 1945 in Čapljina, Yugoslavia. His father Mirko worked for the security agency OZNA. Praljak attended high school in Široki Brijeg with the future Croatian Defence Minister Gojko Šušak. He had three university degrees. In 1970, he graduated as an electrical engineer at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Zagreb with a GPA of 4.5/5. In 1971, he graduated from the Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, majoring in philosophy and sociology. In 1972, he graduated from the Zagreb Academy of Dramatic Art. At first, Praljak worked as a professor and manager of the electronics laboratory at the Nikola Tesla Vocational High School in Zagreb, then lectured on philosophy and sociology, and after 1973 was a freelance artist. Praljak was also a theatre director in theatres in Zagreb, Osijek and Mostar.